Libreboot T400 Review!
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My T400 from Minifree arrived on june 27th.
I chose the version with 4GiB of RAM and a 160GiB HDD.
I placed my order on the june 1st.
===Unboxing===
The laptop was packaged very carefully and securely. The condition of the
laptop was good and the housing was clean except of one omnious sticker from
a company named Microsoft. There were some fingerprints on the screen and
there was a nice Libreboot-sticker on the outside of the lid. The package
also included the right power supply and two pages with useful information
about the laptop.
===Testing===
The screen is free of any damages and its illumination was smooth. The
brightness of the screen lies between okay and good. The built in speakers
and webcam work out of the box. Ethernet and Wireless Lan also work without
problems. The system is good enough to play HD-Videos on an external monitor
and to play games such as OpenArena, Extreme Tux Racer and Nexuiz.
The battery charges fast and seems to be okay. The laptop has an optical
drive and -as it seems- bluetooth.
===Conclusion===
The Libreboot T400 is a perfect desktop replacement and I‘m sure it will
work very well when I‘m not at home. This little PC is small, durable and
silent.
Thanks Leah! :-)
Libreboot T400 Pictures ;-)
I am a translator!
\o/
Oh wow you've got Gnome all prettified. I have much to learn in this. :) I'm using default theme plus the purple background so far.
Congrats on the great new lappy! Another happy family member. I have difficulty leaving mine alone now. I've got so many workflows figured out like rsync over SSH to my main tower to replace DropBox, Cherrytree to replace Evernote, VPN setup etc. As a first time user of libre software and improved hardware, things are going well.
Thanks ariellab! :-)
Just install mate-themes and choose BlackMATE in GTK+ theme settings.
Apart from the dates... ditto.
T400 from Minifree, 4GB RAM and 160GB HDD. The high RPM HDD does make it feel a lot more snappy than I was expecting, an upgrade to an SSD will be glorious on this thing.
It definitely pack a lot of punch performance wise. I am used to a Core Duo 1.4Ghz machines, so this 2.2Ghz Core 2 Duo is a big step up for me. It handles anything the internet has thrown at it.
HIGHLY recommended to everyone here.
My T400 from Minifree has a P8600 (2,40Ghz).
Yep that is correct. I was too focused on the libre firmware instead of speed I guess. ;)
Minifree ships the P8400 by default, since that is most common. A few of them have higher speed CPUs though, so if you're lucky you'd get one that's a little bit faster.
@Archetyp: Regarding the MS sticker on the base of your laptop: this is actually an error. I typically remove those, or cross it out in marker pen and write something cute on top of it.
e.g. "rm -rf /non/free"
I remove the sticker, no problem :)
Another T400 review:
I got my Libreboot T400 a few days ago and thought that i could add a short review here too.
I bought the T400 from Minifree with 4GiB of RAM and the SSD+HDD option and i got to say the T400 and Minifrees' costumer service is excellent.
I got some questions regarding RAM upgrades and other things around the setup of Libreboot.
Leah always answered very fast and was very helpful.
The T400 arrived fast and is in a good condition.
There are only a few scratches on the outside but other than that it looked like a new laptop.
It was the right decision to buy from Minifree and i can recommend it to everyone who considers freeing themselves from proprietary software.
Working on it is very comfortable and the Battery is in an okay condition. It last a bit more than a 2 hours. This is enough for me because I'm never far away from a power outlet.
I am buying one next year. Convinced my girlfriend to purchase one as well. Feels good man.
I am happy with my Minifree T400 as well. It's in good condition and has good battery life. I asked Leah for help setting it up differently than I initially asked; she responded helpfully and within a reasonable time.
name at domain wrote:
> My T400 from Minifree arrived on june 27th.
> I chose the version with 4GiB of RAM and a 160GiB HDD.
> I placed my order on the june 1st.
I'm glad your order worked out. I ordered an X200 from Gluglug.org.uk
(which I understand is Minifree's previous name) in 2005 and it arrived
reeking of cigarette smoke.
On 2015-03-07 I emailed name at domain (which was the email address on
the status emails sent to me telling me about the delivery of the laptop
and the laptop's tracking number) asking about what to do about this:
===begin===
I received the laptop, thanks for shipping it with such good wrapping.
I was not prepared for the computer to have a profound odor of cigarette
smoke even before I could turn it on; unwrapping the doubly-wrapped laptop
revealed the odor. I suggest you tell prospective buyers that there will be
this odor with their computers. I found that the odor was so objectionable
the odor gave me a headache just to be around the computer. I had to put
the computer elsewhere outside of my ability to smell the ugly odor.
I'm ready to support software freedom and pay for skilled hackers to
prepare computers so users can buy something free and ready to use, but I
want to breathe clean air at the same time.
Do you have any suggestions for how to get rid of this odor?
===end===
To date I've received no reply. I'm hesitant to order another computer
(such as a T400) as a replacement because I don't know where the cigarette
odor came from and I think I've been patient enough waiting for a reply.
The computer still bears a cigarette odor, not quite as strong as when it
arrived because I've let the computer sit in an area where there is moving
air but not near me. But the computer is not usable as a laptop with this
foul odor. I consider the money spent on this to be a waste.
Does anyone have any tips on removing cigarette odor from the computer?
Does anyone else's fully-free, FSF Respects-Your-Freedom certified computer
smell like anything but a computer (plastic mainly)?
Thanks.
OT, but important: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_cigarette
I am a translator!
OT, but important: I really wouldn't know personally because I never tried but I was told if you spice it up the odor turns suddenly quite yummy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_%28drug%29
I don't think you'd be able to fully remove the smell if the laptop is from a heavy smoker. Especially if you're sensitive to the smell of cigarette smoke.
It's probably better to get another laptop and sell yours to a smoker who won't mind =)
To improve the situation, buy some isopropyl alcohol (70% solution or less (more can damage the plastic)) or alcohol pads.
Now apply some of the alcohol on a cloth and clean the whole case carefully with it (careful with the pressure!), then remove the keyboard and palmrest and clean everything from the inside. Use a cotton swab for the fan.
The smell of the alcohol will disappear within minutes - open a window to avoid getting a headache.
Usually laptops from ebay do have that problem sometimes, it's not related to free software ;)
The laptops we offer, smell neutral and are perfectly clean, inside and outside. They don't even smell of plastic (they're well-hung after all).
I think you just had bad luck with your purchase and the company you bought it from merely a bad day or a cold and they didn't smell it - perhaps they will contact you and try to resolve that issue, they're active in this forum as well.
If this won't be resolved, don't hesitate to contact us (name at domain) - we'd be happy to provide you with a perfect X200 at 130 EUR base price + VAT (it's currently offered at 220 EUR base price + VAT), so you'd be a happy user again.
Hi Thomas,
See: https://trisquel.info/en/forum/libreboot-t400-review-0#comment-118195
This issue no longer exists with Minifree laptops.
~Leah
Hi J.B. Nicholson-Owens,
My parents smoke, and Minifree used to operate from my parents house. I moved out in April 2016 and since then, Minifree has operated from a smoke-free home :)
If someone who works for me is a smoker, I make them go outside into my back garden when they want to light up.
Rest assured: laptops that you order from Minifree these days will not smell of stale cigarette smoke.
~Leah
PS:
Also, your laptop is actually still under warranty, as per the date you quoted for your order, and I do have a stock of X200 laptops. Email me your original order details and confirm your current shipping details, and I'll send you another one and you can send that one back.
Or, alternatively, you can swap it for one of my Libreboot T400 laptops, at no extra cost.
On the cigar odor removal: Let it under warm day with fresh air.
There are some cleaners that can clear the odor, but they do more harm
than good.
I also own a Minifree laptop.
I totally regret buying it.
I mean Libreboot and Trisquel are super awesome!
At the time Minifree with Francis was actually endorsed by the FSF, and that to me was enough. I know we are early adapter on the free hardware endorsement, not complaining for alpha testing the FSF free hardware endorsement.
I decided for a libre laptop from Minifree and I was ok with only paying with bank because NEO900 had problem too, blah blah blah...
Did I regret paying by bank transfer? Yes I did.
Francis kept telling me that he would ship my laptopt next day, after a while he actually admitted that telling the customer that the laptot was going to ship next day helped with complains Oo... C'mon.
I thought that it was a scam. Terrible months waiting for a pc that I really needed to work, with no money to buy another pc for working with an [at the time] endorsed vendor from fsf.
I started hating the fsf, but was because I did not realized that I was alpha testing the endorsement project.
I have met Technoetic in Berlin, really those are the real deal, A grade product. They actually reply to emails, they are now endorsed by the FSF.
Please consider all the alternatives before buying from Leah.
From my experience http://tehnoetic.com/ is the shop for freedom seeker. I personally believe that Leah has now apologized only because she realized that FSF and GNU are what help feeding her.
You shipped me a broken laptop Francis!
And Told me to get a new keyboard, something I can manage to change, but then I noticed that even the fan of the CPU is broken... c'mon you shipped me crap and now act like you care?
Anyway I do think that endorsing the GlugGlug or Minifree products is a mistake.
BTW. I would love to see the evidences of what you said the FSF did to your friend Leah.
Disgusting.
You offered me to replace the fan for me, but I waited 3 months after the payment to get my laptop, I will never trust you to fix my laptop, I choose to lose your warrenty and do it myself.
Worst web experience ever, at least for me.
forgot... I even sent a totally drunk email to I believe Sullivan where I tried to explain, while hammered, why company like minifree are bad for our free software/hardware movement.
I mean english is not my main language.
Where does all the hate come from? This forum is the most unfriendly place I have ever been on the internet. This behaviour is poisonous and is damaging the whole free and open software movement.
This review clearly refers to a purchase that was made at least one year or even longer ago. What other goal could you have than to provoke and spreading hate? Why didn't you try to resolve this privately and in a timely fashion?
I didn't like the stuff going on then but it has been explained. Time to move on.
I am fed up with the never ending blame game that is being fueled again and again. Reading here gives me high blood pressure.
I will delete this forum from my bookmarks and stop coming here. Goodbye and take care!
Dear Джордж,
While I understand your frustrations, I hope you'll stay. We need to cultivate a positive forum for freedom seeking and loving computer users. To my knowledge this forum is one of those holding the highest potential for that. I don't know how to avoid such problems in an open society. To my (frustrating) understanding, I guess there is no open society, if you exclude malicious voices. And we can not ourselves proclaim to be part of an open society if we actually don't (by excluding ourselves).
Please stay and work with us to cultivate an open society to develop the use of liberating software and computers.
Jacob aka GNUbahn
AND please be aware that though the malicious voices seem to explode from time to time, they are a minority. The absolute majority of users here want a good toned, kind and critical dialogue for the benefit of them selves and the society as a whole.
I am a translator!
>While I understand your frustrations, I hope you'll stay. We need to cultivate a positive forum for freedom seeking and loving computer users.
I second and third this, absolutely. Stay, mama loves you <3
Hi Marco,
I apologize for the bad service that you received back then. Your laptop shipment was delayed back then, due to inefficient business practises at Minifree, which were:
1) I was the only person doing anything. I had no employees. And too many customers.
2) Inefficient workflows; manual invoicing (these days it's automated). Invoicing and accounting was literally the main bottleneck. both are now automated. The X200 in particular, which you bought, was very difficult to flash back then due to a bug in flashrom. This is now fixed, so if I were to sell the X200 again, I'd be able to flash one in about 10 minutes (back then, it was average 1-2 hours).
These days, I have 2 employees; my girlfriend, and my brother, both of whom work hard. As do I. Minifree's workflow is also vastly improved, with many routines automated.
For quite some time now, Minifree shipments have been very fast. I also reply to emails quickly.
I checked my business records for everyone named "Marco", and sure enough, I found an order in my logs which correlates with your report:
order date 3 May 2016
courier booked 14 july 2016 for collection 15 july 2016
You have claimed that I apologized for what I did regarding Libreboot's relationship with GNU, simply for monetary reasons. This is not true. Minifree's sales remained the same all throughout that period, and were in fact higher in April 2017 (when I apologized for what I did, publicly) than they were in September 2016 (when I did the thing that I later apologized for).
The reason I apologized publicly, is because I genuinely believe I made a mistake and because I truly regret hurting people the way I did. You can read that apology here:
https://libreboot.org/news/unity.html
Regarding your final comment, quote: "BTW. I would love to see the evidences of what you said the FSF did to your friend Leah."
I publicly admitted that I had no evidence, and apologized for it. I do know that someone was fired, but I no longer believe it was due to discrimination of any kind.
I'm quite happy to actually ship you a whole new replacement Libreboot X200. I have a reserve of these laptops in stock, precisely for the purposes of warranty repair.
I just want you to know, that I hold no hostile intentions towards you. Your complains are 100% reasonable; I screwed up your order. There is no justification for this.
However, you ordered your laptop more than a year ago. Since then, Minifree's practises have greatly improved. If someone else were to order from Minifree today, they would not have any problems.
For instance, the other day someone from the USA made an order, and their payment was received within the hour (Minifree uses a better payment service nowadays) and their laptop was shipped 1 hour after they placed the order. It got to them in 2 days.
This was very recent.
~Leah
Great answer to an intemperate post.
last thing, the mess you did accusing FSF GNU created a mess in my city, at least among people that were mildly interested about free software, I was in a position that suddenly looked bad, the lug where right not the fsug.
I will never buy something from you again Leah.
Hi Marco,
I apologize for the hardship that I caused you.
If there's anything that I can do to help rectify your situation, I'm quite happy to do whatever I can. Please don't hesitate to ask.
~Leah
Good morning,
I have received two Libreboot T400 from Minifree a last week and they work like a charm. The service was great and delivery was quick. The laptops were properly packaged and protected to travel in good conditions. One of the T400 was field tested at http://sha2017.org and survived without a scratch (virtual or physical).
Thanks !
Full disclosure: I'm with the Free Software Foundation.
P.S. I quickly browsed the backlog of this thread and there seem to be an argument (more than one ?). I will not participate in this discussion, my interest is solely on sending a positive review to a provider that sent me the product I expected.
Thank you for your review :)
I was searching through my stock today, and I uncovered several high-capacity batteries, some of them are 100% or near that. The next batch of orders for the next week or so from 25 August 2017 will have near-new batteries, about 4-5 hour battery life, 50+ Wh. (usually I try to ship as high capacity as possible otherwise, about 40Wh or higher).
I currently have about 80 laptops in stock, so there's plenty of freedom to go around :)
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